After months of waiting, Nokia finally announced the N97, the company's second (unreleased) device to challenge the iPhone and revive to the N-series to their former glory. The Nokia N97 is billed as the world's most advanced mobile computer in the form of a smartphone.

The Nokia N97 will have a quick contacts bar and customizable widgets, which users can manage depending on their browsing habits and preferences. The location networking capabilities come from an integrated A-GPS sensor. The aim, according to Nokia, is to allow customers to interact with their favorite social networks in realtime and with accurate, up-to-the-minute location-sharing abilities.

Nokia N97 Features/ Technical Specifications

Display

Display Type:Touchscreen

Aspect Ratio:16:9 aspect ratio

Display Size:3.5 inch

Resolution:640 x 340 pixels

Dimensions

Handset:117.2mm x 55.3mm x 15.9mm

Camera

Clarity:5-megapixel camera

Lens:Carl Zeiss Tessar lens

Flash:Dual-LED flash

Video Quality:DVD quality in 16:9 aspect ratio

Others:VGA front-facing camera to support video calling and conferencing

Memory

On-Board Memory:32 GB on-board

Expandable Memory:16 GB microSD card

Keyboard

Keyboard:Full QWERTY Physical keyboard (slide out screen)

Cellular Radio / Wireless

Cellular Technology:HSDPA (900/1800/1900) / GSM

Built-in GPS:A-GPS, Standalone GPS with Electronic Compass

3G Capable:Yes

Built-in Wi-Fi:Yes

Built-in Bluetooth:Yes 2.0+ EDR

Battery Power

Talk Time:5 Hours

Music Playback:37 Hours

Video Playback:4.5 Hours

Operating System

Symbian OS:Fifth-edition Symbian S60 OS (version 9.4)

Other Features

Stream Flash videos

Accelerometer

Light sensor

3D Nokia maps

Nokia Music Store

Nokia N-Gage

Nokia Messaging

Free access to Nokia’s catalog of music (containing over four million tracks)

Not so fast. I own a nice N96, but I hate how slow it is. Nokia deserves credit for a very valuable feature to embed GPS coordinates into pictures as well. You shoulda mentioned that in your review. Further, your review does not address performance of how long it takes to open widgets, maps, photos, or how choppy video is... Yes, I like the very functional and valuable features, but Nokia needs to fundamentally provide better processor and faster memory. Bottom line: Don't shell out $700 for a phone with cheap memory and slow processor. Looking forward to a thorough review...